Improvement in thill-couplings



A. HAR EY & M. R. THURBER} Thill-Coupling.

No. 205,958. Patented July16,' 187-8.

WITNESSES INVENTORJ c u, PETERS. PROTO-LITHOGRAFNER. wA mNsmN n 'UNITED'STATES.

PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED HARVEY, OF SORANTON, AND MILTON R. THURBER, OF NICHOLSON,PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN THlLL-COUPLINGS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 205,958, dated July 16,1879; application filed April 29, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ALFRED HARVEY, of Scranton, in the county ofLuzerne and State of Pennsylvania, and MILTON R. THURBER, of Nicholson,in the county of Wyoming and State of Pennsylvania, have inventedcertain new and Improved Thin-Couplings; and we do hereby declare thefollowing to be a full and exact description of the same, referencebeinghad to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecification, in which Figure l is a side elevation of athill-coupling, partly in section, showing the application of ourimprovement and Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same.

Similar letters of reference in the several figures denote the sameparts.

Our invention has for its object to provide a thill-coupling with ananti-rattling device, which shall serve at the same time to lock thecoupling-bolt in place, and prevent the thills from suddenly droppingdown upon the ground when the horse is removed from between them.

To this end it consists in a strong metal spring so connected to thecoupling that one part shall bear against the eye on the end of thethill, to prevent rattling, and another part shall bear upon the pivotallocking-bolt outside the coupling, to hold said bolt from Working out.

It further consists in the peculiar form of spring employed foraccomplishing these results, and the manner of its application, as wewill now proceed to describe.

In the accompanying drawings, A represents an ordinary thill-couplin gapplied to a section, B, of a carriage-axle, and to a section of ashaft, 0. D is the elastic locking device, consisting of a strong metalspring, bent in the form of a loop, E, whose sides contain one or morecoils, F, and again bent so that its ends G H shall extend up in rear ofthe loop E. When applied to the coupling the device is inserted frombelow between the jaws of the coupling-clip with the loop E bearingfirmly against the rear side of the eye J, and the ends G H caught orbent over the jaws of the clip.

To prevent the loop E from dropping down it is bent forward somewhatover the eye J, while the ends G H, being caught over the clipjaWs,prevent them also from dropping out of place. By this means the force ofthe springs formed by the coils F is exerted to press the loop E firmlyagainst the eye J, to prevent the rattling thereof on its bolt, and alsoto assist in preventing the thills from dropping suddenly down when thehorse is removed from them.

K is the bolt by which the thill is secured to the clip, and to avoidthe use of anut and nutlock to hold it in place it is provided with alateral recess, m, in the under side of its threaded end, into which thelong end H of the spring is extended outside the clip, as shown. Thisforms an effectual lock to prevent the bolt from working out of place,because the force of the spring tends to hold the arm H constantlywithin the notch.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new is 1. Anattachment for thill-couplings, con sisting of a strong spring connectedto the coupling, so that one part shall bear against the eye on the endof the thill to prevent rattling of the joint, and another part pressagainst the pivotal locking-bolt, outside the coupling, to prevent saidbolt from working out, substantially as described.

2. In a thill-coupling, the metal spring, consisting of the loop E,coils F, and ends G H, combined with the pivotal locking-bolt K, havingthe lateral recess m, substantially as described, for the purposespecified.

ALFRED HARVEY. MILTON R. THUR-BER. Witnesses:

JNO. SORAGG, W. M. FINN.

